Frank C. Keil's Books

Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development

By: Frank C. Keil

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development

By: Frank C. Keil

In Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development, Frank C. Keil provides a coherent account of how concepts and word meanings develop in children, adding to our understanding of the representational nature of concepts and word meanings at all ages. Keil argues that it is impossible to adequately understand the nature of conceptual representation without also considering the issue of learning. Weaving together issues in cognitive development, philosophy, and cognitive psychology, he reconciles numerous theories, backed by empirical evidence from nominal kinds studies, natural-kinds studies, and studies of fundamental categorical distinctions. He shows that all this evidence, when put together, leads to a better understanding of semantic and conceptual development. The book opens with an analysis of the problems of modeling qualitative changes in conceptual development, investigating how concepts of natural kinds, nominal kinds, and artifacts evolve. The studies on nominal kinds document a powerful and unambiguous developmental pattern indicating a shift from a reliance on global tabulations of characteristic features to what appears to be a small set of defining ones. The studies on natural kinds document an analogous shift toward a core theory instead of simple definition. Both sets of studies are strongly supported by cross cultural data. While these patterns seem to suggest that the young child organizes concepts according to characteristic features, Keil argues that there is a framework of conceptual categories and causal beliefs that enables even very young children to understand kinds at a deeper, theoretically guided, level. This account suggests a new way of understanding qualitative change and carries strong implications for how concepts are represented at any point in development. A Bradford Book

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

352

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262610760

ISBN 13

9780262610766

Wonder

Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science

By: Frank C. Keil

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Wonder

Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science

By: Frank C. Keil

How we can all be lifelong wonderers: restoring the sense of joy in discovery we felt as children. From an early age, children pepper adults with questions that ask why and how: Why do balloons float? How do plants grow from seeds? Why do birds have feathers? Young children have a powerful drive to learn about their world, wanting to know not just what something is but also how it got to be that way and how it works. Most adults, on the other hand, have little curiosity about whys and hows; we might unlock a door, for example, or boil an egg, with no idea of what happens to make such a thing possible. How can grown-ups recapture a child’s sense of wonder at the world? In this book, Frank Keil describes the cognitive dispositions that set children on their paths of discovery and explains how we can all become lifelong wonderers. Keil describes recent research on children’s minds that reveals an extraordinary set of emerging abilities that underpin their joy of discovery—their need to learn not just the facts but the underlying causal patterns at the very heart of science. This glorious sense of wonder, however, is stifled, beginning in elementary school. Later, with little interest in causal mechanisms, and motivated by intellectual blind spots, as adults we become vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation—ready to believe things that aren’t true. Of course, the polymaths among us have retained their sense of wonder, and Keil explains the habits of mind and ways of wondering that allow them—and can enable us—to experience the joy of asking why and how.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

333

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262368455

ISBN 13

9780262368452

Wonder

Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science

By: Frank C. Keil

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Wonder

Childhood and the Lifelong Love of Science

By: Frank C. Keil

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

333

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262368455

ISBN 13

9780262368452

Book's by Frank C. Keil

Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development

Concepts, Kinds, and Cognitive Development

Wonder

Wonder

Wonder

Wonder

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email